MILWAUKEE – If the Rockets played as if they thought they could score with ease and put the Bucks away whenever they got around to it, the assumption was understandable. They were usually right.

That became the Rockets’ biggest issue again as they worked to keep the Bucks in the game, offering reminders of those nights they let other last-place teams hang around long enough to beat them. But when they needed to score with ease, the quality that had distracted them so for most the night, they always could.

The Rockets tempted fate again, this time against half of the league’s worst team, but with the game on the line, they finally sealed a 101-95 win in the final 10 seconds on Saturday.

“Just glad we got that win,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said with a thought to the alternative. “That was not our best game. We had a lot of possessions we didn’t move the ball offensively. Defensively, they kind of got what they wanted for a while.

“We got a win. That’s what we came here to do.”

The Rockets’ five-game winning streak matches their best of the season. Their 12-consecutive wins when scoring 100 points is the longest active streak in the NBA. Dwight Howard topped 20 for a fifth-consecutive game, his longest streak of the season, scoring 27 points on 11 of 19 shooting with 13 rebounds and five assists.

Yet, the Rockets knew they had made things much tougher on themselves than they needed to be, initially by allowing the Bucks to own the boards, then by putting up almost no resistance defensively to end the first half and start the second and finally by straying from what had worked so reliably all night.

“There comes a point if you’re going to be a good team in the NBA, your biggest challenge is yourself every night,” McHale said. “You play against yourself after a while. If you become good enough, you really don’t play against the opponent. You play a level you expect to play at. The opponent is someone you test yourself again. That’s what we’re trying to get to”

That all seemed to come from falling into the same trap, taking a Bucks team lightly as it played without Ersan Ilyasova, O.J. Mayo, Luke Ridnour, Ekpe Udoh, Caron Butler and after 4:23 Larry Sanders. The Bucks that were left would not surrender, forcing the Rockets to pay enough attention to repeatedly rebuild double-digit leads by getting the ball inside to Howard or having Jeremy Lin or James Harden attack off the dribble.

“We try to do that consistently,” said Lin, who had 18 points and has averaged 16 on 50 percent shooting in the past five games. “We try to do that over a period of time, try to do that extensively. I think right now we’re too up-and-down. That’s part of the game, but it would be nice for us to build leads and really dominate from start to finish.

“I think (the challenge) is not to get too comfortable and try to stay in a rhythm as much as possible, always try to be attacking. That’s what we want to do as a team.”

The Rockets, however, would not let the Bucks fade away. Khris Middleton hit a 3 off an inbounds play and Brevin Knight took a James Harden turnover to a layup to pull within six with the Rockets acting as if they did not notice the Bucks were still in the game. When Lin fouled Middleton shooting a 3-pointer, Middleton cut the lead to three. Lin missed a contested fadeaway jumper with 24.9 seconds left, giving the Bucks a final possession to force overtime.

The Bucks went for a quick basket with Brevin Knight going to the rim and drawing some contact from Pat Beverley. But Knight missed his layup. Beverley was not called for a foul. Howard was fouled on the rebound, hitting his second free throw to finally put away the win.

The Rockets, however, knew it never should have been that tight. In a game they made 29 of 53 shots in the paint, they still put up 25 3s with Harden going 1 of 9 from behind the arc. The Rockets strayed from the lane so often, they took just 13 free throws, their fewest of the season. The nine they made tied their fewest only when Howard tacked on two with 3.2 seconds left.

“We didn’t attack like we needed to the whole game,” Howard said. “We had spurts when we attacked the basket. There were times we just settled for a 3 or a long 2. We have to always be in attack mode.”

They were when they thought they were in trouble, but for most of the night, they could not convince themselves there was reason for concern. They were probably right, but once again, it was a dangerous way to play.